Eblah has been kind enough to make a YaBB 2 to Eblah converter. Why is that nice? Well, it would suck if people jumped from YaBB 2 to Eblah, naturally. But now we can reverse the Eblah data format layed out in that converter to make it easier to create an Eblah to YaBB 2 converter Who's taking the challenge?

There's nothing wrong with using their converter to help us out, as later on they could do the exact same. To "acid-test" our converter and make sure it's as good as theirs, we could convert back and forth and see if any data is lost.

Furthermore, the code is GPLed, so the license allows us to use their code, which I doubt we'll do.

Well, I don't have any recommendations yet. It took me a while to go through all the files. It's a lot easier now than YaBB 1's layout was to decipher.

The code which writes the files out is VERY confusing. We should at least keep some sort of documentation on how these files are stored. The writing code is scrambled in a lot of files, but that's not the problem -- the problem is that it is scrambled in the wierdest places.

good work matt!i'm not sure about the "universal data object", though.you have to extend it everytime two forums share a new value to ensure that it's translated for the other forum.it might be a good idea not only having a basic udo but additionally a specialised one. so the driver developer has the choise how complex he wants to make his converter. the specialised object would contain any extra data which the universal object does not provide(, yet?). it would include a version number or better a unique bb-identifier which includes the version (f.ex. "YaBB2RC3Build010905" or "phpBB2.6"). the output driver could verify against this identifier and handle the specialised information if available and appropriate. that way the developers around which are not in the YaBB team are undependent from us releasing a new UDO-class and they will more likely produce "better" converter drivers.it may also be worth about thinking splitting the udo in several ones. one for messages, one for boards, one for members etc.

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Matt Siegman

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Re: EblahReply #14 - Sep 24th, 2005 at 4:22am

Yeah, I'm still not sure about how to do the UDO. I think breaking it up would be OK, but it's just more crap to pass around. (variable name wise )

I think version info would be a very good idea.

I was thinking that maybe we should have an official Driver list, where the drivers conform to our standards, including naming in their UDOs. This would be the best way to ensure that the user downloads quality/working software.